P Smoov "Face Scrunchers"

This is my friend P Smoov's beat tape. It's called Face Scrunchers. He is one of my favorite artists from around these parts, and if you download this tape and listen you will see why. The whole thing (which is almost 40 minutes I believe) is on one track. Yep, that's right! Just like the old days. You can learn patience while appreciating good music! Get some...

DOWNLOAD HERE

"Otherside" Accapella

Shout out to Nikki of Seattle Show Gal for coming through, interviewing us and making me rap.

*and Ryan Lewis for filming this and devoting a good portion of his Sunday to figuring out how to sync audio from protools with the "Color" program.

For the full interview and write up go to www.seattleshowgal.com

The Town Behind The Sceens 1.2

I can't believe this is my video. Literally, I'm still in a mild state of disbelief. I have so much love for everybody that is/was involved. To see Casandra in the video speaking about Talk Sick already makes the video a success. They brought me on my first tour and we have been family ever since.

Talk Sick's unexpected passing was a huge loss to our community, and the fact that he is being honored in this video is more beautiful then I could have ever imagined. He loved and supported our scene with everything he had, and wherever he is I hope this video makes him proud and pays homage to his legacy. You are missed homie...

HUGE shout out to Kirby who got all the Zulu folks together and coordinated everyone's schedules. To get that many Hip-Hop heads together is and incredible act, and she did it with grace.

Zia and everyone else who put there heart and soul into this video will get there thanks in new blog post...coming very soon!!! For all the behind the sceens stuff and much more go to Zia's new blog www.loveandshoestrings.com.



And the fact that CHARLES is in the video!? COME ON!!!!

Gucci!

Gucci Mane Talks Working With Usher For The 3rd Time from LowKey on Vimeo.

I respect what Gucci is saying here. I've been on both sides of getting taken off records and having to take someone off. Both of them suck and are challenging situations to deal with. Gucci seemed like he handled it like a professional and ended up with another record from Usher down the line. Some grown man ish...

20th anniversary of the pump

I don't know. Kemp kiiiinda did his thing.

araabMUZIK

Vita showed me this dude. He is not human. A battle between him and Exile would be dope. But I'm not sure how much of a battle it would be.

Sarah Kruzan

Budo: One bird on a wire

Click here to buy at BUDOBEATS.COM
My brother Budo just released his first instrumental LP entitled "One bird on a wire." In my somewhat biased opinion, the man is a master of melody. Throughout the album, he conjures up a consistent "melancholy hopeful" vibe, and evokes emotions like few musicians can. He hears things. And those things are beautiful. Here's a track off it. Enjoy...

http://usershare.net/zq9mg7kvou2u

Jay Electronica

I like this dude.

Anthony Pappalardo “Circle Board” Video by William Strobeck

Mark Gonzales “Round n’ Round” Exhibition

Franklin Parrasch Gallery
20 West 57th Street 7th Floor
New York City, New York

Jeremy Fish: "The Ghosts of the Barbary Coast"

Ghosts of the Barbary Coast
12/01/2008

5024sf Gallery/ San Francisco / 12/2008

San Francisco in the Barbary Coast days of the 1850s was a crazy place. The once sleepy town's population exploded almost overnight as it was flooded with all kinds, here to make their fortunes in whatever way they could. Prospectors, prostitutes, sailors, businessmen, criminals, hatchet men, preachers, and entertainers all had their stories to tell and their reasons for being there.

In preparation for his upcoming show, "The Ghosts of the Barbary Coast" at Fifty24SF Gallery, Mr. Fish has done his homework. Basing his collection of work on true stories from San Francisco's history, he conjures up the spirits of the rowdy, ruthless, insane, and notorious characters that populated the City's seedy past and re-tells their fascinating and often shocking stories to a new audience. Fish also explores parallels between the Gold Rush of '49 with the modern booms and busts of marijuana farming in the 1970s and the dot coms of the 1990s. Highlights of this collection include a series of tightly-executed and well-researched paintings along with amazing three-dimensional wood pieces. Fish plans to bring some real Barbary Coast style to his opening reception with a Gold Rush-style saloon, complete with grizzly bear. What better way to pay tribute to the folks who paved the way and established San Francisco's independent and rebellious reputation?

(taken from sillypinkbunnies.com)

WAR!

GOAT internet song. Thank you Zia. Ye. That's right. Check.

"dre, snoop, ________(insert hungarian fallen soldier here), pac... pac was the best" < might be the best 2 bars that don't rhyme any hungarian rapper has ever written.

Black Dante and Black Thought

I love people that can get over their ego and give other artists respect. We're all so worried about "jocking" or appearing "less than" that we don't acknowledge those that inspire us. Refreshing to see Mos give it up to one of the illest. This is Hip-Hop.

Blakroc Project

Blakroc Project from Myrhax on Vimeo.

I got this over at budobeats.com. I've been seeing it on blogs for a minute but the spelling of the name led me to believe it was corny. Oh, how I was wrong. This makes me want to create. I love creating shit. It's why I'm alive. Word. God.



I got this one over hellafilthy I'm sayin!

Grind Time Presents: Thesaurus VS. Illmaculate

Two homies. Arguably the two best battle rappers in the world. Head to head...If you like watching battles, I give you this.

Three Six Mafia- Smokin on the Dro

Fashawn "Boy Meets World" out today

Free download...
Fashawn feat. Blu "Samsonite Man" (produced by Exile)

Leroy Men's Wear

El Mizell was clowning me for this video the other day and I promised him I'd blog about it. What to say. Ok. Yes, as some of you know my uncle is in this video. It's Xperience's dad, Bern (hence the title of our crew being "Step Cousins"). He's the smooth looking brother that drapes the endangered animal over his shoulder. I almost forgot about this video (and would have liked to) but my friends, alcohol and secrets don't go hand in hand.

Anyway, it's crazy because I have so many childhood memories revolving around that jacket. Uncle Bern bought one for XP when we were like 11, and I traded him my Cowboys Starter jacket for the Cheetah. I remember coming home in that thing, and my mom was all kinds of disappointed in me. She's always been on the more liberal side of big game hunting, particularly when the species wasn't used for food. My dad however was super into skins, fur, beef jerky and this cheetah, so eventually I got my way and spent the majority of the summer in the jacket. While my friends were swimming and stuck in baseball camp, I was in cheetah. That's when I started rapping.

Looking back, that skin had a big impact on the beginning of my identity. A lot of ignorant people associate Leroy's Mens Wear with "Pimp/Player" clothes. Not at all. It was, is and always will be an establishment of Luxury for the men of downtown Seattle. But Leroy's was more then just a clothing store to me and XP. It was a hang out. A place where we could go to learn about what it meant to be a man. It taught us how to manipulate women (in a good way) by using clothing to get what we wanted. It taught me that in order to be "man enough" you didn't have to wear denim and plaid. I think there's a big stigma, particularly hear in the Northwest about how you're "suppose to dress". So many men think you need to cut down a tree and piss on it before you grow a dick. Not true. You could wear a jacket made of cheetah, a silk shirt or a cape made out of a Cheetah and still be man enough. My uncle Bern was, and still is to this day.

Before GOODS there was Leroy's. Now go buy something. I'll probably see you down there.

204 Pike St. Seattle WA 98101.

"Something New" Remix

Something New REMIX! from Stephan Gray on Vimeo.

I had this beat to write to for a minute. Freestyled a crap verse a month or two ago. I didn't like it, and I don't think anyone else did either. P Smoov hit me up on Monday seeing if I could turn in the verse by Thursday, cause him and Stephan Gray were planning on doing a video for it. I wrote/recorded the verse Thursday morning/afternoon and turned it in at 3:30pm. We started shooting the video around 6:00pm. That's Hip-Hop.

Stephan edited it beautifully, because I actually look like I know my verse. I didn't. It was hard, particularly with the staccato'd out cadence the first 8 bars. Grynch had his done months ago (productive son of a bitch) and Larry recorded his on the spot before we shot it. I think everyone did a good job with the raps. Hard redoing a really dope song (Smoov murdered it originally). The video turned waaaay better then I expected (not because Stephan's not incredible but because he had 24 hours to edit footage of me fumbling through lyrics). The night turned out to be pretty classic, and just reaffirmed how much fun I have with my people.

The whole experience was a good example for my perfectionist self, that sometimes you just gotta make art and put it out. That's it. The moment is made and then the people get to experience it. It might not be perfect, but nothing ever is. I've spent so much of my life over analyzing my music, and the result is rarely better art. It creates more fear, more doubt and less music in the hands of the people. I applaud and learn from people like Grynch and P Smoov, who make a cut and put it out. That's Hip-Hop. I'm working on it. Something New. Hope you enjoy.

Sitka Alaska

Music has taken me to some beautiful places. At times it's driving across the country in a cramped van, pressed up against a window, trying to steal back the sleep life doesn't want to give you. Watching the invisible lines that divide our country and define territory, come and go from behind the windshield. At times it's airports, time zones and altitude that are the issue, observing our small world from the sky. All of it, although at moments grueling builds the precious gift of perspective while maneuvering through space and time to get to the destination.

I have made 2nd homes in small towns, suburbs, and city's where I have come in contact with incredible community's. Over time, many of these people have inspired my art and made me feel like family. They go above and beyond to make you feel comfortable, make sure you're having fun and see to it that you have a chance to experience their food, stores, landscapes and culture.

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to go back one of these places, Sitka Alaska. This was my second summer back and I had new eyes the entire trip. The previous one it was raining all weekend, with the clouds encapsulating the mountains that were supposedly break taking. I didn't get to see the mountains, or really take in the beauty that is Sitka. I spent the majority of the time in my hotel room chain smoking spliffs, taking naps and watching what seemed like Canadian TV. This time, there was none of that and the sky's decided to part the clouds for the Festival. My pictures don't do it justice, but the mountains, the town and the people make Sitka one my favorite places I've had the privilege to travel. Huge shout out to Homeskillet Records, my dudes Nicolas and Geo, all the local artists, Phonetic, Breathe Owl Breathe, Langhorne Slim and everyone else in Sitka that made the trip extra fresh.

(*the two show pictures are someone else's)

Shabazz Palaces: Belhaven Meridian

Shabazz Palaces - "Belhaven Meridian" [OFFICIAL] from Kahlil Joseph on Vimeo.

Shabazz Palaces: Belhaven Meridian
I believe this is the first video from Shabazz Palaces (the homie Ish). It's directed by my big brother Kahlil Joseph and it turned out beautifully. Last time I was in LA he showed it to me while still in the editing process. Dope to see it finished and get out to the people. Salud...

*taken from www.raindrophustla.com

Saunjay is better at sk8ting then I am at meditating

Oh my lord. I ran into Bean and Saunjay (Bean's son) the night before I bounced for Vipassana, and he was trying kick flips. I didn't believe it.

I AM A BELIEVER!

This is incredible. The board was bigger then his body like a year ago!
We were at the same skill level! Now he's doing 6 steps like it's nothing.
He's the Lil Jesus of tiny feeted Tangle Town ridaz.

But he still can't see me on a fingerboard.

(Around 2:30 is where the high wore off of whoever edited this video and they got focused. Start from there if you're not on GHB).

10 Day Vipassana

After coming down from the high of performing at Bumbershoot, along with working extremely long, stressful and depleting hours in the studio all of august, I was burnt out. I took a break. That was needed. But the stress and lack of patience that accompanied the time period prior to Bumbershoot remained. After a little self evaluation, and a good old "what am I doing with my life" breakthrough/breakdown, I realized I'm extremely disconnected. Disconnected to myself. Disconnected to my purpose. And most importantly, disconnected to God.

Fear and anxiety. I'm drowned in them. After talking to a friend the other night, I realized that they're both stemming from either the past or the future. Although I believe with everything in the power of music and the effect is has on people's lives, the business and marketing aspect is done primarily for self serving purposes. After the process of making the music, you have to push it. And although the creating stage is (hopefully) coming from the heart, it's a different story when you're trying to spread it to the masses.

Lately my intent has been to feed the ego and gain validation through an image. And this image is manipulated by Twitter posts, vindicated by blog reviews, and relieved by myspace plays, all on public forums that define who I am. But this is not me. This does not scratch the surface. Everything is based on other peoples perception of where I am on the invisible hierarchal staircase of "success." And this is determining my happiness, altering my self esteem and giving me an identity. The thing is, none of it is real. I know this. But I've forgotten in action, and I need some discipline to remember.

So, I'm doing a Vipassana 10 day silent meditation starting tomorrow. I did it back in 2006 and it was the most challenging experience I've ever had, and also the most rewarding. So I'm going back. And this time it isn't just to detox from drugs and alcohol. It's to detox the mind, that has been rotting with an artificial self. I gotta get to the real one again. I'm an extremely unbalanced dude, so instead of doing some yoga and chugging wheat grass, I'm going out to the woods to eat vegetarian food, wake up at 4am and meditate silently for 10 days to find it. Hopefully I'll come back stronger and get closer to who I'm aiming at becoming. If you're interested, here's some info, schedule and rules on the Vipassana. For more info go to http://www.kunja.dhamma.org/




If I'm not connected to God, there is no music. If I'm not making music, I'm not being of service (to my utmost potential). If I'm not being of service, I will never know God. If I never know God, I am not fulfilling my purpose on this earth. If I'm purposeless there's no reason for me to be here...and I'm just wasting a perfectly good Twitter username that someone else could have.

*Artwork done by Treeseah

Oh, America